Denver Homeless Out Loud Hosts Funeral for Human Dignity

On Monday night, while a lame-duck Denver City Council debated spending $400,000 to bus the homeless to a shelter on the outskirts of town, a dozen demonstrators and homeless advocates gathered in the rain in front of a locked public restroom on Welton Street by Sonny Lawson Field. A year ago, city council passed another bill approving the expenditure of $1.8 million dollars to increase downtown policing and crack down on such minor offenses as public urination, but did not allocate any money to add public restrooms.

This move came in the wake of an earlier ordinance banning sitting on sidewalks and sleeping downtown — also known as "urban camping." And so Denver Homeless Out Loud held a Funeral for Human Dignity. Photographer Brandon Marshall was there and took these photos.